Academy aftercare: How football is helping young players after they are released

“I have kids who were released at under-18s,” says Grace Brooks. “I’ve messaged them once every three months. Nothing, nothing, nothing. But I will never stop, because what if, on that ninth time, 10th time, they’re really struggling and they need something?”

Brooks is speaking from Stevenage FC’s academy centre. She was, when The Athletic visited in September 2025, head of player care. Brooks was moving the player care room — formerly a small, cramped area only large enough to hold football equipment — to a much bigger place, three times the size.

Brooks had carte blanche to organise the new space however she saw fit. Beanbags, pictures, furniture — anything that made players comfortable in sharing their vulnerabilities, during the cut and thrust of academy football or after the aching disappointment of being released.

Since that day in September, Brooks has moved to Arsenal, taking up the post of the women’s academy player care lead. Over a year-long project, The Athletic has visited a club from every league across the fifth tier of English football (the National League) to the top flight. The intention was to learn the different methods and, most acutely, how players are cared for upon leaving an academy.

What is academy aftercare? The prevalence of player-care liaisons is an overwhelming positive, crucial in helping players with their mental health, social and educational needs and to plot a life post-football.

Aftercare, though, is more opaque. A blindspot in football has been knowing what responsibility a club has for a released player, specifically in the academy, and how long that care lasts.

Football is getting better at assisting players who remain within a club’s environment, but the aftershock of being released can be painful. Sometimes, speaking from experience, the sense of despair does not creep in for months, or even years. It can permeate all areas of life, damaging relationships, education and, most severely, mental health.

In 2020, a survey by the Professional Footballers’ Association (PFA) showed that 55 per cent of players released by professional clubs experienced clinical levels of psychological distress. The standout conclusion was that symptoms of distress frequently increased in the weeks and months after release.

It is estimated that 10,000 boys are in academies in the United Kingdom. Fewer than 200 are expected to become professional players. Experiencing shock and disappointment on that scale, which can pose existential questions to boys who have only ever known or wanted to be a footballer, is traumatic. They suffer the news in their formative years, when they have not truly matured as a person.

“I don’t think we deal with it (planning for life after football) very well in the sport,” said Gareth Southgate, on the Rest is Politics: Leading podcast. “What a player does not want to hear is: ‘You might not make it’. Let’s think about how you might prepare for the other part of your life because it’s coming at some point.”

The British Psychological Society (BPS) says improved mental health support for released academy footballers is needed now more than ever and has called for protocols to be put in place, such as additional funding to assist with three appointments with an HCPC (Health and Care Professions Council)-registered sport and exercise psychologist.

“It’s the routine,” says Natalie Wood, Shrewsbury Town’s head of academy player care. “A player has so many routines, so it’s the shock of that vanishing.

“It can feel like death to the player when something is taken away. It’s about mitigating that and making sure they have good routines in place — they’ve got football trials elsewhere lined up, they have people they’re close to speaking to them and they’re busier than ever.”

“It is particularly harsh approaching the scholarship years,” says an academy director, who has spent more than a decade working in the Premier League but has agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity, as they are not authorised to do so. “There will be immediate help, but a year down the line, when the initial flurry of interest from other clubs hasn’t produced anything, it can be very difficult.

“The heartbreak of being told ‘no’ is a lot for the player and parents to bear. It’s a massive blow that stays with them for a long time.”

“A couple of times I’ve sat across from the table with someone whose mindset is completely different from what we’re about to tell them,” adds Eastleigh Under-19s scholarship coach Jason Brookes. “They’d be in floods of tears and absolutely devastated when I tell them they’re being released.”

Cruelly, there are pertinent, tragic examples.

In late 2018, Jeremy Wisten, then 16, was told he would be released by Manchester City. As is often the case for players who miss out on scholarship forms, Wisten was able to stay at the academy until the end of the season. He spent the next six months trying to find another club, yet a knee injury added extra toil and impeded his chances of finding somewhere else.

Everything he worked for and sacrificed had vanished. Wisten stopped playing football and became more withdrawn. In October 2020, aged 18, Wisten was found hanged at his family home in Manchester, with the coroner recording a conclusion of suicide.

Other released footballers speak about their identity evaporating. The sport and club that had now left them had become so inextricably linked to who they were and what friends, teachers and sometimes family would associate them with. Without football, who were they now?

Football had given Matthew Langton self-confidence and a purpose. He came through Derby County’s academy before being released at 16, but signed for Mansfield Town, where he completed a scholarship programme.

Close friends began recognising a difference in Langton. On reflection, his mental health was deteriorating. After his release from Mansfield aged 18, Langton was living back at home and fell into depression, isolating himself from friends and only leaving his room reluctantly.

In February 2021, Langton died by suicide, aged 20. The post-mortem toxicology showed he had not been drinking or on drugs. Instead, Langton had the symptoms of a dissociative disorder known as derealisation, which can make sufferers feel disconnected from the world around them.

It is December 2025. Boys from under-16 academy groups have a date for a meeting with coaches. Most learn whether they will be offered a scholarship and a two-year contract, or be released. The many years of dedication and fixation on becoming a footballer boil down to this.

“Four boys have not been offered a scholarship in our under-16s,” says the Premier League academy director. “That final discussion was with their parents last week and player care is now involved in putting player packs together to advertise to other clubs. But it’s only the bigger academies that have those resources. It’s difficult to do that if you’re a lower-tier academy and you’ve got half a dozen full-time staff.”

Eastleigh’s senior side compete in England’s fifth tier, the National League. They have a handful of full-time staff, with no set player-care programme — not because people at the club lack understanding or desire, but because of funding.

“We don’t have the resources to provide released players with anything,” says Brookes. “Some clubs provide coaching qualifications, but we have to get help from the FA or somebody who can allow us to run those courses. If you had a two-year scholarship at Bournemouth down the road, they would help get your FA Level One coaching badge. But we can’t offer that at National League level. We hope boys find a club so they don’t stop playing football, because so many of them just stop.

“I’ve had meetings where I’ve said to my bosses, ‘What more can we do?’. I wanted us to provide them with something that can help when they leave. Originally, I started clipping their footage throughout the season and compiled some highlights.”

“Throughout the year, I’ve been planning for the under-16 releases,” Wood says. “I’m building a player care plan. This includes finding out if they’ve got agents, putting their profile on the front of a booklet, and then their profile will build, detailing their strengths as a player. They will already have their extended BTEC diploma, so all that information will be in there.”

In Wood’s view, ensuring players have alternative career aspirations before being released can mitigate the aftershock.

In November, Wood delivered a “transition and aftercare” presentation to players, showcasing last year’s age group and what can be learned. One example was Cam Morris, a player who left in 2024 and has since played in Australia, Indonesia and Dubai. Wood got the under-16s to create a personalised aftercare plan, including what other career they wish to pursue, before working on a CV. Answers ranged from being a physical education teacher to serving in the Marines or coaching in Europe.

“We’ve had external motivational speakers and I’ve done a workshop with parents,” says Wood. “That cooling space after being released is really important, but keeping the relationship open and then reaching out is even more so. I’m checking in with ex-players and we have an alumni group chat, with every former player in it.”

“We certainly try to prepare them quite early on for the realities of the game,” says Southampton’s former academy director Matt Hale. “We’re constantly talking to them about a plan B and how important the education they’re getting at their school is.”

“After they are released, I’ll give them and their parents time,” says Brooks. “I do the initial check-in the day after, and then the next week, and then normally around summertime. I’ll give them the summer to not think about football — I’ll say, ‘If you need anything, message me at any time’.

“We had one boy who’s at Deloitte doing an apprenticeship. If we can get boys back in any capacity, working, coaching, or as a strength and conditioning (S&C) intern, I will do it.

“We’ve got a kid called Zak who did a personal trainer’s course and we helped him through that. The PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) funded half of it. He is going to come in and do S&C for the younger boys.”

In June 2022, guidelines were passed by the Premier League requiring all 92 Football League clubs to give a three-year “commitment of support” to academy players released between the ages of 17 and 21.

“I was speaking to the boys the other evening and they were asking us to help them with job opportunities outside of football, so the aftercare is improving,” says Wood.

“We’ve been involved in a research project with Loughborough University, from under-nines to under-16s. The conclusion explained that players feel so many pressures throughout a day — the pressures of school, when they come into football and the pressure on the pitch.

“So clubs need to allow them to breathe and build friendships. When I asked the players about that, they were saying things like bowling, team bonding activities, such as biking, barbering, or carpentry skills, would be really good to do.”

There is a greater responsibility on clubs to provide a duty of care to released players. Preventative measures, which can help soften the shock, are a priority. The importance of showing life after football, even if headstrong young footballers may not think it at the time, is part of the curriculum at English Football League (EFL, tiers four to two) and Premier League clubs.

“The worst part of my job is when you have to release someone,” says Brookes. “They come upstairs in the restaurant and one after the other, have a 10-minute slot. We will just say, ‘Yes, you’re going to be offered a contract’ or, ‘No, but thanks for your years with us’.

“Some will be crying their eyes out. They think it’s the be-all and end-all. Last season, out of 21 players, no one got a pro contract. We had to go through them all in one day, which was so tough. Some had been with us from the under-12s, and we told them there on the spot. That was the hardest thing. They’re not prepared for it, because their only idea is to play football.”

“We have the view that we need to look after our players from eight to 88,” adds Hale. “If we can help by putting them on another course or trying to find another club, even if they’ve been released by someone else further down the line, then perfect. They know they can contact us any time.”

In the lower leagues, maximising what clubs have becomes a necessity. They lean on coaches in-house who have experience playing. At Shrewsbury, first-team coach Dave Edwards, who earned 43 caps for Wales, has delivered presentations on managing finances, while academy coach Sean McAllister, another former midfielder, has discussed career transition.

“Life after football is a role in itself, because it’s yearly,” Wood says. “Recently, we had an alumni match, where we invited former players back to play. We invite those boys in for a cup of coffee and to watch a game, just to see how they are. I’ve got a spreadsheet to keep a check on where I’m at.”

“I’m sad when players get released,” says Brooks. “If I didn’t care, I wouldn’t be good at my job. You have to care unconditionally, so when they get released, it’s really tough. I always joke about how I’d be the worst coach because I would say yes to everyone.”

The EFL holds conferences in several UK regions, with player care officers across every club invited. The purpose is to connect peers and discuss what more can be done. One upshot from a conference last year was Stevenage and Cambridge United starting plans to host an alumni tournament, with released players from both clubs featuring.

“The stigma previously associated with mental health and wellbeing is changing now,” concludes Brooks. “Players often say, ‘Can we have a group check-in and see how everyone’s feeling today?’.

“Going forward, I would like to see a mandate for younger players under 17. It would increase my workload, but there’s funding for player care.

“Having a ring-fenced amount for player care would allow clubs to insist on helping every released player for a few years. Every player care person has the intention to do that, but it’s about being realistic and having the time and resources. It’s tough.”

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